What Does It Feel Like To Get A Daith Piercing?

Daith piercings make a stunning addition to any ear set up! These amazing piercings are located in the inner folds of the ear. To find the daith, follow the line of your upper ear until it turns into the ridge of your inner ear. A daith piercing will be located on that ridge of cartilage located immediately above the ear canal.

The daith piercing has the distinction of being one of the most mispronounced body mods. Although it looks like it’s pronounced phonetically, “day-th,” it is actually pronounced more like “dah-th” or “doth.”

Lots of different types of jewelry can be worn in the daith, including: seamless rings; segment rings; a curved barbell; or a BCR. Although this piercing seems hard-to-reach, it is easy to insert jewelry once you get used to it! Because this piercing is tucked into the natural curvature of the ear, it makes an excellent showcase for lots of amazing jewelry types.

The daith is just one of many ear piercings. If you’re looking for other cartilage piercings, you might consider a flat; snug; rook; conch; helix; tragus; or industrial piercing. There are also regular ear piercings for earrings and stretched ears for plugs. For a full list of EVERY ear piercing, check out this blog: The Ear Piercing Dictionary!

The daith is a unique piercing – our guess is, if you are looking to get a daith piercing, you’ve already been pierced before. You already know what to expect at the piercing shop – sit down, wait your turn, come back, get lined up, needle pushed through. Then you’re done!

In the moment though. The moment the needle is pushed through your body. What exactly does that feel like? There’s no perfect answer – every single body is different, and every person’s experience is going to differ in one way or another. You’ve probably already hear the rumors that cartilage piercings are going to hurt. They probably will, but it might help to hear what the experience was like from someone who actually went out and got their daith pierced.

We asked five (5) Body Candy customers what it was like to get their daith piercing done. Here’s what they had to say:

Note: some of these names/faces have been changed to protect privacy

Lauren Y. – Toledo, OH

My daith barely hurt at all. I remember my piercer asking me to breathe in and then he pushed it through my ear while I exhaled. I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or what, but it didn’t hurt me at all when it went through. I didn’t even feel a pop or anything, I exhaled and then it was just over. I wish I had a more exciting story, but that’s literally the experience I had. In-and-out no problem.

I did experience a bit of achiness later on in the day, just like you would with any piercing. I just took a few Ibuprofen and it went away.

I will say, PLEASE watch out for bumping your ear. Everything was going fine for me and then about four days after my piercing my dog swung his head around and nailed me in my ear. OUCH. Luckily I didn’t experience a piercing bump or anything, but it definitely was sore for a few days after that.

My piercer gave me some salt spray to use on my ear and I just used that once or twice a day. Although it’s healed up I still hit it with the spray every now and then because it’s in such a tight spot.

Polly W. – Greenville, SC

I decided to do this to try to get rid of my migraines. I heard that getting a daith piercing is good for migraine relief because it’s on an acupuncture point. I have to say, I really recommend doing it because it helped me out a lot.

I am not gonna lie though, this piercing really hurt. My piercer freaked me out a little bit (we’re friends) by saying that a lot of people throw up or pass out after they get this piercing done. He wasn’t lying about the pain, but I didn’t throw up or anything. If you’re doing this because you suffer from migraines though, the one minute of pain is worth it for even one prevented migraine.

I have had a tough time with the aftercare on this piercing. I always seem to have just a little bit of dried blood that is stubborn and won’t spray off. I recommend going back to your piercer once it’s healed to have them help you change out your jewelry too.

All in all, 9 out of 10 on the pain scale for sure, but I don’t regret it and would get this piercing 100 times over. I love my daith!

Dayna G. – Brattleboro, VT

The weirdest part of my daith experience was the “pop.” It was this weird sensation somewhere between a sound and a physical experience. It’s hard to explain! As the needle went through my ear, I felt and heard a pop. It was so weird. Like, it hurt, but it wasn’t the most painful thing in the world. The sound was loud but it wasn’t deafening. It’s just one of those sensations that was like none other I’ve ever experienced. I’d rate it a 6 out of 10 on the pain scale.

While I really love my daith, the aftercare was really annoying. I really dislike the sensation of water going into my ear, and since the daith is close to your ear hole, the wound spray is bound to go in. I ended up getting an irritated daith (I slept on it) and I probably should have been better about cleaning it because for a while it was really irritated and in a hard to reach place

All in all, annoying aftercare, weird initial sensation, but amazing look. My daith is definitely my favorite piercing.

Kori C. – Flagstaff, AZ

I feel like I had a unique experience with my daith piercing. The actual daith piercing didn’t hurt more than a slight pinch. The needle going through felt just like getting a vaccine or something. Quick. Easy. No big deal.

What really sucked was when my piercer struggled to get the jewelry in. It. Was. Brutal. They kind of fiddled around in there for like five minutes, wiggling the jewelry around trying to get the jewelry inside this tiny spot in my ear. It was horrible. I’ll be going to a different piercer next time.

Other than that unfortunate experience with my piercer, my daith was honestly the easiest piercing I’ve ever healed up (I have 12). I never slept on it and I always practiced good hygiene and aftercare. I found that since the daith is located in this protected area inside your ear, it’s harder to snag it on anything.

Melisa B. – Cranston, RI

I bought into the whole “daith piercings cure migraines” narrative, so I finally made an appointment a piercer to get my daith done. I prefer a more traditional look (lobes and navel), so I was hesitant to go out and get this piercing, but I figured it was worth it if it helped with my migraines.

The piercing itself wasn’t very memorable, I’d call it a 3 or a 4 on the pain scale out of 10. It felt like my navel – pinchy and unpleasant, but over before I knew it.

Unfortunately, my daith piercing hasn’t seemed to help with my migraines, which is sad because I was really hoping it did. Although I was on the fence about the look at first, I’ve really come to like my daith piercing and even went out and got a helix piercing afterwards to compliment it.

All in all, no, this didn’t cure my migraines. Yes, I would go out and get it again!

Tell us all about your daith piercing experience!

Do you have a daith earring? What was getting your daith pierced like? Would you get your daith pierced again if you had the chance? Tell us all about your personal piercing experience in the comments. Spare no expense, leave no detail untold!

I got the daith piercing from a great piercer and I no longer have any headaches at all.I use to wake up with 1 nearly everyday.